Local top boxing star Jeremiah “Low Key” Nakathila and his promoter Nestor Tobias of the MTC Nestor Sunshine Boxing & Fitness Academy has turned down an opportunity to fight for the IBO Junior Lightweight World Title.

The fight was scheduled to take place in March this year either in Russia or the USA.

Nakathila is currently ranked number 3 by the World Boxing Organization (WBO) and has aspirations to fight for the WBO World Title if all goes well this year.

“Yes we were presented with an opportunity to fight for the IBO World Title, but our focus is limited to the top 4 boxing sanctioning bodies only being WBO, WBC, IBF and WBA. In our view these are the only sanctioning bodies taken seriously in the world of boxing and therefore the only legitimate titles, and we are not about to go for any world title just because it’s a world title,” said Tobias.

“We have been in the boxing business long enough to understand that this sport is a business and if you do not respect it, it will not respect you. Nakathila is rated number 3 now and we will continue to push that he gets a world title shot this year, but we will not take any short cuts. We had an IBO world champion before and that experience taught us valuable lessons which we do not wish to repeat”, Tobias added.

On February 23, 1963, Nigeria’s Dick Tiger fought the legendary Gene Fullmer to a 15-round draw to retain his WBA world middleweight title. It was a rematch of their first encounter four months earlier, which Tiger won by decision.